The Long Way Around
by Imagination-Parade
Summary: After discovering Nicole and learning her story, Cassandra has some math-based questions, Ezekiel's amused, and Baird definitely still hates time travel.


_Just a bit of nonsense that I thought of when chatting about the logic of the time traveling aspect of Nicole's introduction...hopefully you guys find it as amusing as I did!_ _Season 2 finale spoilers here but only minimal spoilers for Season 4._

 _Thanks to Logan (angellwings on Twitter) & Jamie (JustJamieLeigh) for a few of the lines below, and thanks to Alex (worldclassthief) for answering my question about the season 2 finale._

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"I have a question," Cassandra declared as they were sitting around the island in the Annex's kitchen after the conclusion of the case.

"Shoot," Baird said, taking a sip of her beer.

"Well, Nicole was born around the same point in the history of time as Flynn, right?" Cassandra asked. "But now she's 500-something years old because she got stuck in the past?"

"That's right," Flynn confirmed.

"So aren't you guys technically hundreds of years old, too?" Cassandra asked, pointing across from her to indicate Baird and Flynn. "About 400…give or take?"

" _What_?" Baird asked, sitting up a little straighter. Flynn merely looked confused, while an eager smirk traveled across Ezekiel's face.

"The whole…Shakespeare thing," Cassandra explained. "I mean, you technically spent hundreds of years in the Library as a statue, right, waiting for my voice to reanimate you? So I just thought…"

"Ha!" Flynn exclaimed, clapping his hands together as if he'd just discovered something incredible.

"That is not the same thing!" Baird immediately insisted, clearly opposed to the idea Cassandra had just presented. Besides Cassandra, Ezekiel simply chuckled quietly.

"Time travel!" Flynn cried. "The long way around!"

" _No_!" Baird cried.

Cassandra shot Ezekiel a look, a little bit bashful at having caused the rapidly growing scene before them, a little bit trying desperately not to laugh, too.

"What do you mean, _no_?" Flynn said. "She's right! It only seemed like a few days to all of us, but if you start counting from the year we were entombed within the statue, we were in the Library for roughly 400 years until Jenkins found us and Cassandra's voice brought us back, making us, technically, four centuries old. That's so cool."

"Not cool," Baird said. "And not accurate. We have not _lived_ four hundred years, Flynn."

" _Technically…_ " Flynn started.

"Why don't you tell Nicole you're four hundred years old, too, next time you see her?" Baird suggested. "She'd slap you silly."

"How do I celebrate my birthday now….?" Flynn pondered, completing ignoring Baird's last statement.

"The same way you celebrated this year," Baird said flatly.

"Plus four hundred," Flynn muttered.

"I am not a day over…well…you know how old I am," Baird said.

Ezekiel, unable to help himself any longer, said, with a chuckle, "And, uh, exactly how old _is_ that, Colonel Baird?"

Baird face hardened into a glare as she turned to Ezekiel. "Young enough to still have the ability to make you regret asking that question," she said.

"Okay, then," Ezekiel replied, his own face momentarily sobering.

"You know, I didn't really mean to cause a..." Cassandra started, her voice higher than usual as guilt set in.

"Wait a minute," Ezekiel interrupted. "So they…and Nicole, I guess…were in the Library when they were being born? Or…no, because they didn't exist yet?"

"Well, no, they have to have already been here or else…" Cassandra started. Halfway through her answer, she started second-guessing herself and finished, much less confidently with, "Or else…they wouldn't…be here."

"What?" Ezekiel asked.

"What?" Cassandra repeated, now also confused.

"I _hate_ time travel!" Baird cried.

"We all lived those overlap years twice," Flynn explained. "We were here and…out there."

"We did not…" Baird started. "Okay, Nicole, yes, but you and I were not _living_ those years."

"Well, we certainly weren't _not_ living," Flynn argued.

"There were not two of us wondering around this world," Baird said.

"Well, no, of course not, because we were encased in a statue in the Library by the time we were born. Now, if we had been like Nicole, and not trapped in a dungeon, we could've watched ourselves grow up," Flynn said. His face instantly fell a little as he pondered that seemingly missed opportunity.

"I hate time travel," Baird muttered again.

Quickly getting over his disappointment, Flynn realized, "It's a good thing we found the Library back when you guys first started. Cassandra wouldn't have been able to wake us up if the Library stayed lost."

"If the Library stayed lost, we might never have gone back to Shakespeare's time," Baird pointed out.

"And then you wouldn't be four hundred years old!" Cassandra cried, holding her hands out in front of her and with an expression on her face as if she were presenting something exciting all over again.

Ezekiel grinned again, and Cassandra pursed her lips upon Baird's steely gaze. She curled one hand into a fist, laid her other hand on top of it, and tilted her head down so her mouth and chin rested on top of her fingers.

"Exactly," Flynn said with triumph.

"You know what…let's ask Jenkins," Baird said, standing from her stool. "He can settle this."

"He's going to agree with _me-e_ ," Flynn said in a sing-song voice.

"Is not!" Baird called, heading for the kitchen door.

As Baird and Flynn left the kitchen, the bickering followed them down the hallway, and Cassandra sheepishly looked at Ezekiel again.

"I probably shouldn't have said that," Cassandra admitted. "But…was I wrong?"

" _Definitely_ not wrong," Ezekiel said with another laugh.

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 _Thanks for reading! Reviews are always greatly appreciated:)_


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